Everything about George Carlin totally explained
George Denis Patrick Carlin (born
May 12,
1937) is a
Grammy-winning American
stand-up comedian,
actor, and
author.
Carlin is especially noted for his
political and
black humor and his observations on language,
psychology, and
religion along with many
taboo subjects. Carlin and his "
Seven Dirty Words" comedy routine were central to the 1978
U.S. Supreme Court case
F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, in which a narrow 5-4 decision by the justices affirmed the government's right to regulate Carlin's act on the public
airwaves.
George Carlin's most recent stand-up routines are primarily focused on attacking the flaws in modern-day America. He often takes on contemporary political issues in the United States and satirizes the excesses of
American culture.
He is considered by many to be a successor to the late
Lenny Bruce and was described by
Comedy Central as the second greatest stand-up comedian of all time behind
Richard Pryor, and right before Lenny Bruce. He was also the first person to host
Saturday Night Live.
Early life and career
Carlin was born in
New York City,
New York, the son of Mary (
née Bearey), a secretary, and Patrick Carlin, a national advertising manager for the
New York Sun.
Carlin grew up on West 121st Street, in a neighborhood of
Manhattan which he later said, in a stand-up routine, he and his friends called "White
Harlem", because that sounded a lot tougher than its real name of "
Morningside Heights". "
General Grant was one of my neighbors," he'd say later. He was raised by his mother, who left his father when Carlin was two years old. At age 14 Carlin dropped out of
Cardinal Hayes High School and later joined the
United States Air Force, training as a
radar technician. He was stationed at
Barksdale AFB in
Bossier City, Louisiana.
During this time he began working as a
disc jockey on KJOE, a radio station based in the nearby city of
Shreveport. He didn't complete his Air Force enlistment. Labeled an "unproductive airman" by his superiors, Carlin was discharged on
July 29,
1957. In 1959, Carlin and
Jack Burns began as a comedy team when both were working for radio station
KXOL in
Fort Worth, Texas. After successful performances at Fort Worth's beat coffeehouse, The Cellar, Burns and Carlin headed for California in February 1960 and stayed together for two years as a team before moving on to individual pursuits.
1960s
In the 1960s, Carlin began appearing on television variety shows, notably
The Ed Sullivan Show. His most famous routines were:
- The Indian Sergeant ("You wit' the beads... get outta line")
- Stupid disc jockeys ("Wonderful WINO...") — "The Beatles' latest record, when played backwards at slow speed, says 'Dummy! You're playing it backwards at slow speed!'"
- Al Sleet, the "hippie-dippie weatherman" — "Tonight's forecast: Dark. Continued dark throughout most of the evening, with some widely-scattered light towards morning."
- Jon Carson — the "world never known, and never to be known"
Variations on the first three of these routines can be found on Carlin's 1967 debut album, Take Offs and Put Ons, recorded live in 1966 at The Roostertail in Detroit, Michigan.
During this period, Carlin became more popular as a frequent performer and guest host on
The Tonight Show during the
Johnny Carson era, becoming one of Carson's most frequent substitutes during the host's three-decade reign. Carlin was also cast on
Away We Go, a 1967 comedy show.
Carlin was present at
Lenny Bruce's arrest for obscenity. According to legend the police began attempting to detain members of the audience for questioning, and asked Carlin for his identification. Telling the police he didn't believe in government issued IDs, he was arrested and taken to jail with Bruce in the same vehicle.
1970s
In the 1970s, Carlin became known for unpredictable performances.
Eventually, Carlin changed both his routines and his appearance. He lost some TV bookings by dressing strangely for a comedian of the time, wearing faded jeans and sporting a beard and earrings at a time when clean-cut, well-dressed comedians were in vogue. Using his own persona as a springboard for his new comedy, he was presented by
Ed Sullivan in a performance of "The Hair Piece," and quickly regained his popularity as the public caught on to his sense of style.
In this period he also perfected what is perhaps his best-known routine, "
Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television", recorded on
Class Clown, a routine which offended some. Carlin was arrested on
July 21 1972 at
Milwaukee's Summerfest and charged with violating
obscenity laws after performing this routine. The case, which prompted Carlin to refer to the words for a time as, "The Milwaukee Seven", was dismissed in December of that year; the judge declared the language indecent, stating that the language was indecent but cited free speech, as well as the lack of any disturbance. In 1973, a man complained to the
FCC that his son had heard a later, similar routine, "Filthy Words", from,
broadcast one afternoon over
WBAI, a
Pacifica Foundation FM radio station in
New York City. Pacifica received a citation from the FCC, which sought to fine Pacifica for allegedly violating FCC regulations which prohibited broadcasting "obscene" material. The
U.S. Supreme Court upheld the FCC action, by a vote of 5 to 4, ruling that the routine was "indecent but not obscene", and the FCC had authority to prohibit such broadcasts during hours when children were likely to be among the audience.
F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 (1978). Ironically, the court documents contain a complete transcript of the routine, perhaps validating what
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. said: "You can't define obscenity without being obscene".
The controversy only increased Carlin's fame (or notoriety). Carlin eventually expanded the dirty-words theme with a seemingly interminable end to a performance (ending with his voice fading out in one
HBO version, and accompanying the credits in the
Carlin at Carnegie special for the 1982-83 season), and a set of 49 web pages organized by subject and embracing his "Incomplete List Of Impolite Words".
Carlin was the first-ever host of
NBC's
Saturday Night Live, debuting on
October 11,
1975. (He also hosted
SNL on
November 10,
1984, where he actually appeared in sketches. The first time he hosted, he only appeared to perform stand-up and introduce the guest acts.) The following season, 1976-77, Carlin also appeared regularly on
CBS Television's
Tony Orlando & Dawn variety series.
Carlin unexpectedly stopped performing regularly in 1976, when his career appeared to be at its height. For the next five years, he rarely appeared to perform stand-up, although it was at this time he began doing specials for
HBO as part of its
On Location series. His first two HBO specials aired in 1977 and 1978. It was later revealed that Carlin had suffered the first of his three
heart attacks during this layoff period..
For years, Carlin had performed regularly as a headliner in
Las Vegas. He began a tour through the first half of 2006, and had a new
HBO Special on
November 5,
2005 entitled
Life is Worth Losing, which was shown live from the
Beacon Theatre in
New York City. Topics covered included
suicide,
natural disasters (and the impulse to see them escalate in severity),
cannibalism,
genocide,
human sacrifice, threats to
civil liberties in America, and how an argument can be made that humans are inferior to animals.
On
February 1,
2006, Carlin mentioned to the crowd, during his
Life is Worth Losing set at the Tachi Palace Casino in
Lemoore,
California, that he'd been discharged from the hospital only six weeks previously for "
heart failure" and "
pneumonia", citing the appearance as his "first show back".
Carlin provided the voice of
Fillmore, a character in the
Disney/
Pixar animated feature
Cars, which opened in theaters on
June 9,
2006. The character Fillmore is a
VW Microbus with a
psychedelic paint job, whose front license plate reads "51237" — Carlin's birthday.
Carlin's latest HBO stand-up special,
It's Bad for Ya, aired live on
March 1,
2008 in
Santa Rosa, CA at the Wells Fargo Center For The Arts. Many of the themes that appeared in this HBO special included "American Bullshit", "Rights", "
Death", "
Old Age", and "Child Rearing". Carlin had been working the new material for this HBO special for several months prior in concerts all over the country.
Personal life
In 1961, Carlin married Brenda Hosbrook (born
June 12,
1939, died
May 11,
1997), whom he'd met while touring the previous year, in her parents' living room in
Dayton,
Ohio. The couple had a daughter,
Kelly, in 1963. In 1971, George and Brenda renewed their wedding vows in
Las Vegas,
Nevada. Brenda died of liver cancer a day before Carlin's 61st birthday, in 1997.
In December 2004, Carlin announced that he'd be voluntarily entering a drug rehabilitation facility to receive treatment for his
dependency on alcohol and painkillers.
Carlin doesn't vote and often criticizes elections as an illusion of choice. He said he last voted for
George McGovern, who ran for President in 1972 against
Richard Nixon.
Religion
Although raised in the
Roman Catholic faith, Carlin has often denounced the idea of God in interviews and performances, most notably with his "Invisible Man in the Sky" and "There Is No God" routines. In mockery he invented the parody religion Frisbeetarianism for a newspaper contest. He defined it as the belief that when a person dies "his soul gets flung onto a roof, and just stays there", and can't be retrieved.
Carlin has joked that he worships the
Sun, because he can actually see it, but prays to
Joe Pesci (his good friend in real life) because "he's a good actor", and "looks like a guy who can get things done!"
Carlin also introduced the "Two Commandments", a revised "pocket-sized" list of the
Ten Commandments in his HBO special
Complaints and Grievances, ending with the additional commandment of "Thou shalt keep thy religion to thyself."
Here for the show
Carlin openly communicates in his shows and in his interviews that his purpose for existence is entertainment, that he's "here for the show". He professes a hearty
schadenfreude in watching the rich spectrum of humanity slowly self-destruct, in his estimation, of its own design; saying, "When you're born, you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front-row seat." He acknowledges that this is a very selfish thing, especially since he includes large human catastrophes as entertainment.
In a late-1990s interview with radio talk show host
Art Bell, he remarked about his view of human life: "I think we're already 'circling the drain' as a species, and I'd love to see the circles get a little faster and a little shorter."
In the same interview, he recounts his experience of a California
earthquake in the early-1970s as: "...an amusement park ride. Really, I mean it's such a wonderful thing to realize that you've
absolutely no control... and to see the dresser move across the bedroom floor unassisted... is just exciting." Later he summarizes: "I really think there's great human drama in destruction and nature unleashed and I don't get enough of it."
A routine in Carlin's 1999 HBO special
You Are All Diseased focusing on
airport security leads up to the statement: "Take a fucking chance! Put a little fun in your life! ... most Americans are soft and frightened and unimaginative and they don't realize there's such a thing as dangerous fun, and they certainly don't recognize a good show when they see one."
Carlin has always included politics as part of his material (along with the wordplay and sex jokes), but by the mid-1980s had become a strident social critic, in both his
HBO specials and the book compilations of his material. His HBO viewers got an especially sharp taste of this in his take on the
Ronald Reagan administration during the 1988 special
What Am I Doing In New Jersey? broadcast live from the Park Theatre in
Union City,
New Jersey.
Themes
Carlin's themes have been known for causing considerable controversy in the general media. His most usual topic is (in his words) humanity's "
bullshit", which might include murder, genocide, war, rape, corruption, religion and other aspects of human civilization. His delivery frequently treats these subjects in a
misanthropic and
nihilistic fashion, such as in his statement during the
Life is Worth Losing show: "I look at it this way... For centuries now, man has done everything he can to destroy, defile, and interfere with nature: clear-cutting forests, strip-mining mountains, poisoning the atmosphere, over-fishing the oceans, polluting the rivers and lakes, destroying wetlands and aquifers... so when nature strikes back, and smacks him on the head and kicks him in the nuts, I enjoy that. I've absolutely no sympathy for human beings whatsoever. None. And no matter what kind of problem humans are facing, whether it's natural or man-made, I always hope it gets worse."
Language, from the obscene to the innocuous, has always been a focus of Carlin's work. Euphemisms that seek to distort and lie, and generally the use of pompous, presumptuous and downright silly language are often the target of Carlin's works.
Carlin also gives special attention to prominent topics in
American Culture and
Western Culture, such as: obsession with fame and celebrity, consumerism,
Christianity, political alienation, corporate control, hypocrisy, child raising, fast food diet, news stations, self-help publications, patriotism, sexual taboos, certain uses of technology and surveillance, and
pro-life among many others.
Collection of works
Discography
| Date of release |
Title |
Record Label |
| 1963 |
Burns and Carlin at the Playboy Club Tonight |
ERA Records |
| 1966 |
Take-Offs and Put-Ons |
One Way Records |
| January 27, 1972 |
FM & AM |
Eardrum Records |
| September 29, 1972 |
Class Clown |
Little David/Atlantic |
| October 1973 |
|
Little David |
| November 1974 |
Toledo Window Box |
Little David |
| October 1975 |
An Evening with Wally Londo Featuring Bill Slaszo |
Little David |
| April 1977 |
On the Road |
Little David/Atlantic |
| November 1981 |
A Place for My Stuff |
Atlantic |
| 1984 |
Carlin on Campus |
Atlantic |
| July 30, 1986 |
Playin' with Your Head |
Atlantic |
| August 15, 1988 |
What Am I Doing In New Jersey? |
Atlantic |
| November 20, 1990 |
|
Atlantic |
| November 10, 1992 |
Jammin' in New York |
Atlantic |
| October 27, 1992 |
Classic Gold |
Atlantic |
| April 10, 1995 |
Killer Carlin |
Uproar Entertainment |
| September 17, 1996 |
Back in Town |
Atlantic |
| May 14, 1999 |
You Are All Diseased |
Eardrum |
| October 19, 1999 |
The Little David Years (1971-1977) |
Atlantic |
| December 11, 2001 |
Complaints and Grievances |
Eardrum/Atlantic |
| March 12, 2002 |
George Carlin on Comedy |
Laugh.com |
| January 10, 2006 |
Life Is Worth Losing |
Eardrum/Atlantic |
| TBA |
It's Bad for Ya |
Eardrum/Atlantic |
Filmography
Home Box Office specials
"All My Stuff", a boxset of Carlin's first 12 stand-up specials (excluding George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy) with bonus material was released in September 2007
Bibliography
Television
The Kraft Summer Music Hall (1966)
That Girl (Guest appearance) (1966)
The Flip Wilson Show (writer, performer) (1971-1973)
Justin Case (as "Justin Case") (1988) TV movie directed Blake Edwards
The George Carlin Show (as "George O'Grady") (1994) Fox
Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends (as American Narrator) (1991-1998)
Shining Time Station (as "Mr. Conductor") (1991-1993)
Streets of Laredo (as "Billy Williams")
14 specials for HBO (as of 2008)
AudioBooks
Brain Droppings
Napalm & Silly Putty
More Napalm & Silly Putty
George Carlin Reads To You
When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?
In popular culture
In the early to mid-1960's George Carlin, with short hair, dressed in a dark jacket, white shirt and dark tie, appeared in advertising as a spokesman for Ozark Airlines.
George Carlin appeared in the Simpsons episode "D'oh-in In the Wind" as a former hippie.
In "Homie the Clown," Krusty the Clown is told he's being sued by Carlin for plagiarizing the Seven Words You can't Say on TV. Krusty tries to defend himself by claiming that his seven dirty words were "entirely different" from Carlin's.
In the second season episode of Everybody Hates Chris, titled "Everybody Hates Dirty Jokes", Chris gets suspended from school for telling jokes based on Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words" routine.
In an episode of That '70s Show, the disc jockey, Donna, is fired from her job and replaced by a girl who is willing to show more skin in advertisements. In order to get them back, her boyfriend, Eric, convinces Donna to trick the new girl into playing George Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words" routine on the air to get her fired. Also, Eric says that after listening to it, he can say a number which is the number of the dirty word Carlin uses. When swearing, Eric only uses numbers.
Rick Moranis portrayed Carlin in several sketches on the late-night television comedy Second City Television (SCTV) in the early 1980s.
In the CKY Videos, one of Carlin's routines is shown before Raab Himself performs a stunt. Furthermore, a clip is shown where Carlin says, "There are some things you'll never see, like you'll never see someone taking a shit while running at full speed." Immediately after this clip is shown, there's a clip of Raab Himself disproving Carlin's statement.Further Information
Get more info on 'George Carlin'.
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